An emergency call (eCall) system senses a collision at the time of a car accident and automatically transmits situation information including positional information of the car accident to relevant authorities through an emergency phone, thereby reducing a response time to the accident.
The eCall system automatically calls a relevant center when receiving an air bag unfolding signal of an air bag control unit (ACU) at the time of the accident and informs the relevant centers of the accident. The eCall system has a mobile communication modem embedded therein and interconnects with a microphone, a speaker, and the like of the vehicle.
The eCall system includes buttons for a user to manually request or test an ‘eCall’ service, a light-emitting diode (LED) to display an operation state, and the like. Further, the eCall system includes an auxiliary battery (backup battery) so as to be operated even when the vehicle is turned off and/or, a main battery is damaged or separated at the time of the accident.
The eCall system receives power from the main battery of the vehicle. When the main battery is damaged or separated, the eCall system receives power from the backup battery. Thus, the backup battery needs to supply power to operate the eCall system for a set period. In the case in which the eCall system is not operated by the backup battery, the eCall system informs the user through the LED or the like for backup battery replacement.
When exporting a vehicle, it requires a long-term transportation period to a sales region. Here, the main battery of the eCall system and the vehicle are separately transported to prevent them from discharging, and the backup battery embedded in the eCall system may be operated and thus may be discharged, such that the eCall system may not be able to be operated by the backup battery at the time of an accident, or the backup battery may need to be replaced at the time of the vehicle sales.
The existing eCall system generally monitors the main battery voltage and receives power from the backup battery when t the main battery voltage drops to a threshold voltage or less, so as to prevent the backup battery from unnecessarily discharging before the sales of a vehicle (or during transportation or storage).
However, the existing eCall system may not monitor main battery voltage when the main battery is separated from the vehicle, such that the user cannot manually operate or test the eCall system under a vehicle turned-off state.
Therefore, the existing eCall system does not prevent the backup battery from discharging during the transportation prior to the vehicle sale. Therefore, the backup battery may need to be replaced prior to delivering the vehicle to a customer, and when an accident occurs prior to the backup battery replacement, the eCall system may not operate.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure, and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.